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In this photo taken Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010, U.S. Army soldiers from 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment salute during the casing ceremony for 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last American combat brigade to serve in Iraq, at Camp Virginia, Kuwait. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is offended “as hell” over automatic cuts to the defense budget, suggesting that the American people “fire” Congress and “keep the soldiers.”

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“It offends the hell out of me that we would even consider that. These men and woman have really gone out of their way to protect all of us so when you get congressional leaders saying ‘let’s gut the military,’ put thousands of people at risk in terms of being kicked out; if you’re going to fire anybody, fire us and keep the soldiers. The soldiers are doing a better for the country than we are,” Graham said at the Capitol on Wednesday. (RELATED: Full coverage of Lindsey Graham)

Graham appeared with Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Jon Kyl of Arizona to announce legislation that would stop the $600 billion in automatic defense cuts supported by the Obama administration and replace the savings with budget reductions in other areas.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any legislation preventing the automatic defense cuts from taking effect, which were originally designed to put pressure on the congressional super committee to reach a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction agreement.